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Hong Kong stocks breached the 10,000 point support level Wednesday. All 33 blue chips fell, with 22 hitting fresh lows. Across the board, only 17 counters rose while 526 counters fell and 210 were unchanged and 194 stocks hit new lows.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index sank 8.87 percent, or 923.74 points, to end at 9,493.62 points, having hit a low of 9,170 points during the day.
The turnover rocketed to 12.17 billion U.S. dollars (1.560 million HK dollars), almost triple the figure Tuesday.
Among companies with the biggest exposure to the U.S. economy, HSBC Holdings (0005), Europe's largest bank, ended the day down 8.6 percent to 80 HK dollars, having fallen as much as 13.1 percent to 76 HK dollars.
Insurance companies took a heavy fall on fears that they would have to pay huge indemnities to policyholders.
Manulife Financial Corp., which is based in Canada, plunged 21.1 percent to 172 HK dollars. Pacific Century Insurance Holdings Ltd., a unit of Richard Li's Pacific Century Group, dropped 20.6 percent to 1.43 HK dollars. China Insurance International Ltd., which holds the Hong Kong assets of China's oldest insurance company, gave up 21.2 percent to 2.60 HK dollars.
Airlines were the other industry to suffer. Cathay Pacific, the city's only lone-haul airline, dropped 19.2 percent to 6.75 HK dollars. China Southern Airlines Ltd., one of the three major airlines in the mainland, fell 18.6 percent to 1.71 HK dollars.
Rival China Eastern Airlines Corp. dropped 18.8 percent to 82 HK cents. China National Aviation Co. also plunged 18.8 percent to 95 HK cents.
Red chips dropped 12.42 percent as a group, underperforming the broader market while H shares gave up 7.58 percent.
The Growth Enterprise Market Index, which tracks the performance of the technology-laden second board, shed 14.18 points, or 7.48 percent, to 175.35.
(People's Daily 09/12/2001)
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